Detroit Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson will be unavailable through the end of the Olympic break, which will be late February.
The Detroit Red Wings, who have not had defenseman Simon Edvinsson available to them for their last two games because of an injury, announced that he won't be available for some time.
Following practice on Monday morning, Todd McLellan announced that Edvinsson will be absent through at least the end of the Olympic break, which is late next month.
"He's a pretty significant piece of the lineup," McLellan said. "He's a significant piece, but we have others that are going to have to go in and play, and they have done that already for a couple of games, and done an admirable job."
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In response to the injury, McLellan has shuffled up the defensive pairings, as first-year Red Wings defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker has been slotted in with Moritz Seider, while Travis Hamonic joins Albert Johansson.
"Trent (Yawney) is managing that back there during the game, and he's making some judgment calls," McLellan said. "If you look at the Winnipeg game, even the Minnesota game, there are different pairs of guys going out at different times, and I think that'll continue."
McLellan noted that while it's not an ideal situation, it's an opportunity for other players to help fill the void left behind by Edvinsson.
"We don't want Simon out of the lineup, but the fact that we've got to shuffle some things around and guys have to play with other partners and in different situations, that's not a bad thing for the group," he said. "You know they haven't had a lot of adversity back there, knock on wood, for injuries, so now we've got to deal with it, and it's not the end of the world."
The Red Wings have five games remaining before the schedule breaks for the Olympics, starting on Tuesday evening against the visiting Los Angeles Kings.
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